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Topic: ECHL coming to St. John's, will be affiliated with Leafs (Read 894 times)

The yet-to-be-named St. Johnís team could officially be introduced as the ECHLís newest franchise as early as today.

With the expected approval from the leagueís board of governors, St. Johnís will be the 28th team in the ECHL next season, coming in as an expansion franchise along with the Maine (Portland) Mariners.

There are currently 27 teams in the ECHL, but the Colorado Eagles will be moving to the American Hockey League next season to become the chief affiliate of the NHLís Colorado Avalanche. The Eagles play out of Loveland, Co., just north of Denver.

St. Johnís and Portland will be the seventh and eighth former AHL cities to join the ECHL, with Manchester, N.H., Glens Falls (Adirondack), N.Y., Worcester, Mass., Norfolk, Va., Cincinnati, Ohio and Indianapolis, Ind.

While it has not yet been determined, St. Johnís will probably be a part of the North Division with the Manchester Monarchs, Adirondack Thunder, Worcester Railers, Reading, Pa., Royals, Wheeling, W.V., Nailers and Brampton, Ont., Beast.

The new St. Johnís will have an affiliation with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs are currently affiliated with the Orlando Solar Bears.

Why can't they have a Richmond Hill ECHL team affiliated with the Leafs? Then I could afford to go to games and see some quasi Leafs prospects play.

Maybe it's reclaiming all the St. John's fans from the AHL Leafs of a decade ago, and siphoning off more Montreal fans from the Maritimes. The Leafs get a ton of love out East when they fire up their training camps for a couple of days out there.

Ricoh is not too bad to get to from the Hill, and they're more pseudo-Leafs than an ECHL squad would be.

Why can't they have a Richmond Hill ECHL team affiliated with the Leafs? Then I could afford to go to games and see some quasi Leafs prospects play.

Maybe it's reclaiming all the St. John's fans from the AHL Leafs of a decade ago, and siphoning off more Montreal fans from the Maritimes. The Leafs get a ton of love out East when they fire up their training camps for a couple of days out there.

Ricoh is not too bad to get to from the Hill, and they're more pseudo-Leafs than an ECHL squad would be.